Painting watercolors on Yupo paper - A few tips and tricks

I ordered some Yupo paper and played with watercolors for a few hours, laying down paint, erasing it, painting on it again. It is a lot of fun, and you don't waste as much paper as with regular fiber paper. Here are my impressions and a few useful tips for beginners.

WHAT IS YUPO
Yupo paper is synthetic paper that is not absorbent. It feels like a cross between regular paper and a plastic sheet. It is very bright and very smooth. Since it does not absorb water, the watercolor paint stays fluid on the surface until it eventually dries by evaporation. Think of it as painting on white glass.

PROS:
You can take longer to mix wet on wet
Watercolors mix easily and interact longer
You can easily erase paint and bring the original bright white (unless you repeatedly use staining pigments)
You can erase in a precise manner, and can erase thin lines and crisp edges
You can reuse the same sheet of paper many times
No accidental blooms
Final painting is brighter

CONS:
There is no "damp" stage allowing for controlled soft edges
Paint on wet paper does not flow slowly in a controlled manner when tilting the paper
Glazes are virtually impossible to do because dried pigments reactivate almost immediately if you go over a painted area with a wet brush.
You cannot exploit the difference between fine pigments and heavier or coarser pigments, because there is no paper texture to grab the larger particles.
No blooming effect
Colors seem to lack depth compared to fibre paper

SUMMARY
Yupo paper seems to be ideal for learning watercolors, mixing colors, and for doing sketches. It can also be used for specific works that require erasing. However, the lack of a damp stage means there are some effects that are impossible to achieve using Yupo.

HOW TO GET STARTED ON YUPO PAPER

Before you paint with watercolors on Yupo, make sure the paper is clean. Even if it looks clean, it might have some oil from having handled it with your hands. A clean paper is important if you need to paint over precise areas, or when doing smooth washes. To clean the Yupo paper just think of it as a glass window: Use alcohol on a clean paper towel and rub the paper to get any oil out.

If the Yupo paper is dirty you get this result:

I rubbed the word HI with oily fingers on clean Yupo paper and then brushed watercolor over the entire area

As you can see, the oil smudge repels the water (and thus the watercolor paint). This acts as a resist. It could be used for effects. This also happens with fibre paper but to a lesser extent. The coarser texture of natural paper protects the recesses from the smudges.

If it's just a slight smudge you can sometimes rub the area with your loaded brush and the paint will eventually stick.

Once clean and dry, you can start painting.
Remember to use less water than you would with watercolor paper since Yupo is not absorbent.

The pigments will continue to interact until the water evaporates.

HOW TO MAKE NEGATIVE LINES AND SHAPES ON PAINTED SURFACE

Since you can easily reactivate and remove all the pigment by rewetting the surface, you can easily create negative lines and shapes.

Creating bright lines and negative shapes with crisp edges is easy with Yupo paper

Just like with natural paper, you can wet a dry painted area and lighten it by picking up pigment with a clean brush or a paper towel. However, on Yupo, this technique works too well and you can easily pick up all the pigment to reveal the white paper again.

Drawing negative shapes is easy on Yupo paper

Similarly, the alcohol technique on Yupo paper leads to bright white spots.

I hope you fonud these tips helpful. If you have any questions just ask. I am always eager to try additional techniques so please share your own tricks in the comments section below. Happy painting!!